C.S. Lewis wrote his novels more than a half-century ago. His words still have impact, as it brought a group of strangers Wednesday night at the Canterbury House on the College Avenue campus.
C.S. Lewis was a prolific writer and a Christian speaker who is best known for his children's book series The Chronicles of Narnia.
Although he died in 1963, his many novels and essays dealing with Christianity and friendship are still studied today. The C.S. Lewis Society at Rutgers addressed the topic of friendship - which was one of the sections of Lewis' The Four Loves - at its first meeting.
A group of 14 people attended, with the Rev. Gregory Bezilla and the Rev. Ellen Little, led the discussion.
"C.S Lewis is an author of broad appeal," Bezilla said. "He appeals to people who are interested in his fiction and people who are interested in his religious writings.
And he's fun to read. [He's] a reliable spiritual guide who appeals to people across religious boundaries."
The first meeting of the C.S. Lewis Society found members discussing how friendship manifests in a mutual appreciation or shared belief.
When asked what was the fundamental similarity or reason for creating a friendship, some answers included religion, music or simply the same love for macaroni and cheese.
Bezilla said his friends are people he could have a glass of wine with, while talking the night away.
"We both have a passion for something no one else cares about," Bezilla said. "I feel less crazy when I'm with those friends."
One of Lewis' opinions in The Four Loves seems simultaneously disheartening and uplifting. He writes, "I have no duty to be anyone's Friend and no man in the world has a duty to be mine … Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself (for God did not need to create). It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival."
Students felt Lewis' writing spoke to the spirit.
The meeting ended with a Christian reading from the end of the friendship section where Lewis writes, "We think we have chosen our peers … You have not chosen one another but I (Christ) have chosen you for one another."
Despite the established guidelines of Christianity, the discussions were mostly general opinions about friendship from a non-religious perspective.
The group collectively decided the next topic for discussion would be the section in The Four Loves about Eros, the sense of being in love and sexual active.
The C.S. Lewis Society at Rutgers will meet the first and third Wednesday of every month from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Canterbury House.
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